OVP: Best Sound Mixing (2017)
The Nominees Were...
Julian Slater, Tim Cavagin, & Mary H. Ellis, Baby Driver
Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill, & Mac Ruth, Blade Runner 2049
Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, & Mark Weingarten, Dunkirk
Christian Cooke, Brad Zoern, & Glen Gauthier, The Shape of Water
David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce, & Stuart Wilson, Star Wars: The Last Jedi
My Thoughts: As we said on Monday, the Sound Mixing & Editing categories in 2017 were exactly the same, harbinger of things to come for the branch that made them so similar the Oscars decided to combine the categories. This wasn't as big of a problem for Editing, but I'll be honest-while this is a solid lineup of Mixing nominees (no one here is getting a thumbs down for their work), I feel like this is where the problem lies for me in terms of which ones needed the snub.
Look at something like Blade Runner 2049, which is on-the-surface a solid nominee for this category. After all, the sound design, particularly the effects, is strong here and the dialogue is easily heard (a massive pet peeve of mine-I hate when you cannot hear dialogue onscreen). But the scoring isn't good-it invades too much of the picture, and it honestly feels like a distraction. This is to some degree a commentary on the score itself, but it also shows how gut-check this category gets with its nomination-assuming that all action films have great sound design when it's usually a mix.
A better example of a movie that can pull off this balance, being both effects heavy AND working with its dialogue & scoring is Baby Driver. This film's effects are its calling card-they're the better side of the coin. But that doesn't negate from the fact that the score is perfectly infiltrated throughout the movie, particularly the scenes where Baby has to talk to his deaf roommate (giving us different levels of sound). Add in the best song score of this entire category (second only to Call Me By Your Name in 2017), and a wonderful array of manufactured and in-real-time car noises, and you've got an action adventure that earns both of its Sound nominations.
Dunkirk is another movie that's kind of in a class by itself in terms of the way that it handles sound. The movie's dialogue is precise (a frequent Nolan sin that this movie doesn't indulge), but it's spare, so you need the sound mixing and authentic moments onscreen to really pop to keep the audience engaged. If I'm being picky (and if you're giving out an Oscar you should be), I will say that the Hans Zimmer score frequently "gilds the lily" in adding too much undercurrent and not letting the naturalism of the battle scenes grip our attention on their own (they're more than capable of it). But that's a small complaint from an excellent movie, who also more than earns those double nominations.
The Shape of Water was the least of the nominees for Sound Editing, and the only film that I think is better here than it was in our Monday writeup. The score is well-informed, adding dimension to the film itself, and unlike Dunkirk or Blade Runner, it doesn't overpower the movie. That said, it's still not a movie with remarkable sound design. I'm thinking of a lot of the dialogue sequences, particularly the interrogation scenes, that don't feel like the aural design has enough personality-I wanted more from the world of del Toro than staid looks into workplace domesticity. But not a bad film by any means.
Our final nomination is The Last Jedi, which like the rest of these nominees (save Shape) is deeply reliant on sound effects to create its universe. I know I'm in the minority here, but while John Williams' score overpowers the film in certain sections, I'm kind of okay with it; at this point Williams' score is the most consistent character in the Star Wars movies and you're going to feel cheated if you don't get it coming at you from every angle. There are some slips in the dialogue during the action scenes that feel like Adam Driver & Daisy Ridley should've been miked better (again, it's for an Oscar-we gotta quibble), but this is another aspect of The Last Jedi that holds up well in the series.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Cinema Audio Society splits its nominations between Live Action and Animated, so we have two slates of nominees here. For Live Action Dunkirk took the prize against Baby Driver, The Last Jedi, Shape of Water, and Wonder Woman, while for Animation it was Coco above Cars 3, Despicable Me 3, Ferdinand, & The Lego Batman Movie. BAFTA went verbatim with the Oscar lineup, and even picked Dunkirk as their winner. That gives us not a lot to go on for sixth place. I think Wonder Woman, which Oscar completely ignored is a stretch to just make Mixing, so I'm thinking it's either Darkest Hour or The Greatest Showman, the former an Oscar behemoth in 2017 and the latter a musical (which they love for Mixing).
Films I Would Have Nominated: I talked about this at the time, but why was it that the single best attribute of Get Out, its delicious, marvelous sound design couldn't get in with Oscar? The clinking of the glass, the way that the score just barely gives you reprieve as Betty Gabriel nails her chilling conversation with Daniel Kaluuya...it's so good. Come on Oscar, the one time you should've defaulted to a Best Picture contender!
Oscar’s Choice: Dunkirk took this one in yet another sign that Oscar wasn't thinking too creatively about the difference between Mixing & Editing...
My Choice: ...which was originally my approach as well, as at the beginning of this article I was ready to cast my ballot for Dunkirk as well. But after reflecting on it, I think that the Mixing there was just a little bit off in terms of its scoring compared to Baby Driver, so I'll give the latter the gold with Dunkirk at silver. Behind them is The Last Jedi, Blade Runner, and The Shape of Water.
Those are my choices-how about you? Are you siding with Oscar & Dunkirk, or do you want to come over to me with Baby Driver? Is there ever a lineup for Mixing and Editing where you truly feel they should have matched up, or was Oscar always just lazy in this aspect? And was The Greatest Showman, Wonder Woman, or Darkest Hour in sixth place? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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